The Last of Us Part 2 has officially arrived and it's time to take a long and long look at its incredible suite of accessibility features. For starters, I'm a deaf player with little or no hearing since birth, and I have to rely on visual information such as captions / subtitles to understand what's going on. One thing I would like to point out: accessibility works differently for everyone. It's never a size that fits everyone, and what works for me may not work for others, and what works for them may not work for me. It's important to try to find enough alternatives that can work for everyone, and The Last of Us Part 2 has come as close to this as any AAA game that has come before.

Before I started exploring accessibility options, I jumped into subtitles. I activated Story & Combat Dialogue subtitles because I hate when someone talks during the fight and I have no idea what they are saying. Part 2 also allows you to change the text size. Developers often work at their desktops on their computer while players at home may often play with their screens further afield, on screens of different sizes, so it's important to have an option to resize (small, medium, large), even if it would be good to have a slider for subtitle size in the end so we can find the size just right for us.

The ability to change the subtitle background is another important addition if you are going to add subtitles to your game; a lot of the time we get subtitles in white text that collide with light backgrounds which makes it very difficult to read. One thing that was new to me was the Subtitles Direction option, which will point out where the speakers are, so we know who and where they are talking from. A Speaker Names tag is also nice to have, so we know who's talking, because trying to figure out who these subtitles can be is frustrating. Color subtitles still allow further customization.

In the accessibility menu, The Last of Us Part 2 has some really good visual aids. Icons that represent important objects, for example, can be switched between Standard and Large. You can even change the HUD color to make the HUD text more comfortable to read in the color of your choice. However, my favorite visual aid is the High Contrast Display, which dampens the environment and only shows your character, allies, enemies and objects. When I first saw this feature, I was blown away - I don't think I've ever seen a game give you an option like this, and it's extremely good for people with low vision (there are also 3 different contrast settings in the game, which is even better).

Another good addition is The Last of Us Part 2's improved listening mode. This is useful when you need to take a nice route and because you can press specific buttons that scan for enemies, objects or point you in the direction of what was the most recent scan.

On the Cognitive Help page, for individuals who can easily be overwhelmed by a lot of information or information, Part 2 allows you to completely skip puzzles and navigation arrows point you in the right direction. A slow-motion mode can be switched at any time to help people who may not be able to respond quickly enough in an intense situation. Of course, there are difficulty options as well, but these are more extensive than you would normally see in an AAA game. There are a total of five set options, ranging from Very Light, which lets you mostly focus on the story without worrying about the game's challenge, to 'Survivor', which is basically a very tough situation.

You also set the difficulty to your likely meaning that you can set a mix of very light and up to survivors that makes The Last of Us Part 2 experience feel infinitely customizable: you can set how much damage you take, how enemies fight against you, how allies can help in the fight, how good you are when you are inclined, how many resources you can find. I hope that more games will offer custom difficulty choices to match your own game preferences going forward.

Note that re-mapping and controller settings are just as important as the other features of the game. In The Last of Us Part 2, "mashing" (pressing a button repeatedly) is not mandatory (as it often is). There is an option to either mash or hold down the button. This should be the standard going forward: games that force people to meet often encourage them to buy additional controls (like a turbo controller) to play the game. This is a much less costly - and uncomplicated - solution.

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